Challenges and Considerations in the Preparation of Novel Antibiotic Phytochemicals

Abstract

Drug-resistant pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria pose a global health threat. Plants, particularly those employed in traditional (folk) medicine, may provide a source of antimicrobials compounds possessing novel mechanisms of action with which to combat current and emerging infectious diseases. However, experimental designs in ethnobotanical investigations of this type are complicated by several factors. Among these are chemotype variations among plants and plant parts, and potential antagonistic, additive or synergistic effects between plant compounds. These efforts are further hindered by a lack of standardized applicable chemical extraction methods in the field, which makes assessment and comparison of experimental results difficult. This overview thus seeks to provide insight into these complicating factors, give a brief historical survey of ancient investigations into antibiotics, and identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of the various modern methods and techniques routinely employed in ethnobotanical antibiotic research.

Mentha: Nutritional and Health Attributes to Treat Various Ailments Including Cardiovascular Diseases

“…Many mint derivatives and their active compounds have been approved by the European commission and the United States Food and Drug Administration for their proposed used as flavoring agents in food products. Plant extracts have numerous intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, which has hindered their applications in the food industry [ 128 , 129 ]. The exiguity of raw materials, chemotypic diversity, inconsistent efficacy, unexplored molecular mechanism of action, adverse effects on food taste, low water solubility, high cost, and threat to biodiversity loss are some leading challenges to Mentha use in the food industry [ 130 ].…”